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Making Music Make MoneyEric Beall

The Song Quality Checklist

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CHAPTER 13112 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 113

a songrsquos strengths and weaknesses and make suggestions as to how to fix the elements that arenrsquot working The Creative Director must have the discipline to send the writer back to the studio (even if the writer is you) as many times as it takes to get it right You are your publishing companyrsquos Quality Control Department Nothing goes out until it receives your stamp of approval

Herersquos a test for you Put your most recent demo in the stereo and hit play Now close your eyes and imagine that yoursquore sitting across from Clive Davis pitching your song Are there things you want to make excuses for Then those need to be fixed Is there a lyric line that makes you wince Change it Any notes in the vocal that make you cringe Tune lsquoem up Is it getting boring halfway through the second verse Add something to the arrange-ment As the song ends try to imagine Cliversquos reaction Is he bouncing out of his chair waving his arms with enthusiasm (Thatrsquos a pretty funny picture actually) Is he nodding half-heartedly Is he checking his watch

The point is simple When you play a song for anyone in the industry you should be able to do so with confidence No excuses no explanations no imagination required Ultimately a song is going to have to do a lot more than pass your quality test in order to get cutmdashitrsquos going to have to blow people away Quality control is the minimum standard

Of course the difficulty is that songs can be maddeningly hard to judge Anyone thatrsquos been in the business for long has been fooled at least once and either rejected a song that became a hit or recorded a song that was a sure smash only to see it flop And of course everybody who hears a song has an opinion for whatever thatrsquos worth But if you listen to enough demos every-day you start to develop a pretty clear picture of whatrsquos important in a song and where most songs tend to go wrong With allowances then for a certain subjectivity and gut instinct that is part of the process I offer you

The Song Quality Checklist(This should be fun huh)

1 Does the title sound like a ldquohitrdquoI can almost invariably tell whether a song is any good simply by looking

at the title Real ldquohitrdquo songs have ldquohitrdquo titlesmdashinteresting provocative funny and unique ldquoGenie in a Bottlerdquo ldquoStutterrdquo ldquoPass the Courvoisierrdquo ldquoSk8r Boirdquomdashthese titles stand out Most of the time itrsquos obvious which songs have single potential just by looking at the titles on an album

The king of great titles is Mutt Lange While my general rule is that one- to three-word titles work best Muttrsquos titles are so good they can break all the rules ldquoMan I Feel Like a Womanrdquo ldquoPour Some Sugar On Merdquo ldquoI Said I Loved You

CHAPTER 13114 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 115

(But I Lied)rdquomdashthese titles have sold the song before the music has even started Conversely titles like ldquoWithout Yourdquo or ldquoYou Are the Onerdquo are all but DOA I can tell by the title that Irsquove heard this song too many times before

Fixing a title is trickymdashitrsquos a little like fixing the framework of your house after itrsquos already been built But sometimes itrsquos just a matter of adding or subtracting a word or two or even changing the punctuation Britney Spearsrsquo ldquo Baby One More Timerdquo is more interesting than ldquoBaby One More Timerdquo Try to picture how the title of your song would look on the Billboard chart Would it stand out

2 Is there a concept for the songA weak title is usually an indicator of a more serious problem Songs

called ldquoWithout Yourdquo are not really about anything or at least not anything very interesting Therersquos not an original idea at the core of the song Take a look at the hit titles You can see that therersquos an idea a concept behind every song ldquoStutterrdquo by Joe is about a girl who starts to stutter when she has to explain where shersquos been Thatrsquos an idea worth writing a song about ldquoWith-out Yourdquo is not Most songs miss the top drawer because the core idea of the song is simply not compelling If the concept is weak itrsquos very hard to rescue the song no matter what you do with it musically or lyrically

3 Is the lyric effective Appropriate Convincing Singable Appeal-ing Clicheacute free

Itrsquos the eternal debate between composers and lyricistsmdashdo lyrics matter Irsquoll settle it for you here and now Yes Of course itrsquos possible to come up with examples of songs in which a banal lyric is redeemed by a great track just as itrsquos possible to come up with a lyric that has made something special of a relatively standard melody There are an awful lot of songs out theremdashyou can find an example to prove almost anything But as someone who listens to songs everyday I will tell you plainly lyrics matter A lot

This is not to say that therersquos anything wrong with a simple direct lyric In many cases particularly in dance music or urban music thatrsquos the only kind of lyric that will be effective and appropriate ldquoMusic Sounds Better With Yourdquo is a great lyricmdashone interesting line repeated over and over Itrsquos exactly what the song needs Conversely a lyric that sounds false or forced can kill a song on the spot

The words have to sing If therersquos a line in a song that makes you cringe itrsquos usually because the lyrics feel awkward the melody and words are out of sync with one another This is a job for Creative Director Find those clinkers and get lsquoem out of there Also the singer has to want to sing the words Lyrics function not only within the song but also within the context of the artistrsquos image Songs that put the singer in a poor light are tough to

CHAPTER 13114 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 115

get covered Most artists prefer to present themselves as strong and indepen-dent rather than needy and whiny (They save the needy and whiny stuff for offstage)

Finally one quick word about clicheacutes Stock rhymes like ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo or trite predictable metaphors drive AampR people nuts When yoursquore writing a song itrsquos easy to pass these clicheacutes offmdashafter all the line sings well and itrsquos only one line but when you listen to hundreds of songs a day itrsquos not just one line Itrsquos the same stupid clicheacuted line that yoursquove heard on ten other songs already today I once listened to twenty songs in a catalog and found that eighteen had references to birds flying and nineteen mentioned rivers running You start to notice that sort of stuff Spare me Spare us all

4 Is the song structured correctly Is there a natural build and release within the song structure

There are endless ways to structure a song but only about three that actually work

VerseB SectionChorusVerseB SectionChorusBridgeBreakChorus Out ()

Verse (with hook line at the end)VerseBridgeVerseBreak or Bridge (repeat)Verse (or half verse) ()

ChorusVerseChorusBridgeVerseChorus Out

The form I see quite often particularly from singersongwriters is this one

VerseVerseVerseBridgeVerse

Sometimes if Irsquom lucky the title will show up somewhere in there buried in yet another verse This is not a structure This is a stream of consciousness expression Song structure works on basic principles use the best parts more than once donrsquot take too long to get to the best parts and have at least one section that comes as a bit of a surprise Try the Clive Davis test Note if or when you start feeling bored You just found the weak part of your structure

Often structural problems can be fixed with a few simple edits Cut out that boring part move the chorus sooner or go straight into the out choruses after the bridge As the Creative Director you should feel free to experiment with any options you feel move the song along more effec-tivelymdashand help to bring it in at less than four minutes Fact if your song canrsquot be performed in less than four minutes itrsquos probably not going to get on the radio So you might as well make the cuts now Therersquos no reason for a five-minute demo

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

5 Does the arrangement serve the song Does it enhance the songPeople often speak about arrangement and production as if the two

were synonymous I prefer to distinguish between them Arrangements are concerned primarily with musical parts and structure while production is centered around sonic and performance considerations A drum pattern is an arranging issue a snare sound is a production one A background string line is an arranging element the fact that the strings are out of tune is a produc-tion problem

The first rule of arranging is that nothing should detract from the listen-errsquos focus on the melody and lyric Background parts should not clash with the vocal and the instrumentation and tempo should fit the mood of the lyric Most songwriters are protective enough of their song that this is usually not a problem Lyricists particularly tend to be ever-vigilant about anything that might obscure their favorite line (Every line is a lyricistrsquos favorite line)

More often the problem is that songwriters fail to use the arrangement to enhance the song Too many demos are nothing but drums bass some sort of pad laying down the chords maybe a string part and a few orchestra hits repeating the same patterns until the fade

On any classic record of almost any style there is some sort of instrumental hook built into the arrangement of the songmdashthe bass line in ldquoBillie Jeanrdquo the string lines in ldquoYesterdayrdquo the guitar riff on ldquoJohnny B Gooderdquo the pan flute melody on ldquoMy Heart Will Go Onrdquo the surf guitar and horn lines on ldquoLivinrsquo La Vida Locardquo the organ part on ldquoLike a Rolling Stonerdquomdashthese elements support the song and give it a unique identity They can also add a sense of dramatic development providing a jolt of surprise when they first appear a sense of change when they disappear and emphasis when they reappear

Listen to your demo and identify the instrumental hooks If yoursquore not sure your song has any hooksmdashthen the song isnrsquot done Go back to the drawing board

6 Is the tempo right Does the song dragYou never really understand the importance of getting the tempo right

until you play your song at a pitch meeting Suddenly the up-tempo groove that felt so in-the-pocket when you heard it in your office seems to plod and the ballads seem to run out of gas entirely stalling to a dead stop somewhere around the second verse Something must be wrong with the CD player Take it from a veteran of this syndromemdashdo not adjust your stereo There is nothing wrong Nothing that is except the songrsquos tempo

In my experience you want to push the tempo up to the breaking point and then pull back just slightly from that Yoursquoll hate me for it until you get to the pitch meeting You can thank me later

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

7 Is the production of the demo ldquodynamicrdquo and ldquoin your facerdquoProduction is one of those vague terms that can encompass almost every

element of a recording from the instrumentation to the vocal performance to the mix My primary concern here is sonic quality and musical performance Are the sounds fashionable fresh and interesting Are the reverbs delays distortions and other effects used effectively Is the mix properly balanced (keeping in mind that what constitutes a proper balance differs radically from genre to genre) Are the instruments and vocals in tune and in time Does the recording have drive and excitement

The impact of music is not just emotional or intellectual Itrsquos also physical If you donrsquot know what I mean crank a little Nine Inch Nails on your stereo You get it now The drums and bass should be a physical force that almost literally pushes the music along You should feel the bottom of the track in your gut Snare drums should crack with energy Demos that have this sort of power immediately set themselves apart from 80 percent of the music that comes across an AampR personrsquos desk most of which is tidy and pleasant and also soft and mushy Donrsquot be timid Try to blow those weasels right out of their chairs

8 Does the demo fit clearly into one specific genre Is that the appro-priate genre for the song

For many songwriters the creative process is one of complete freedommdashan impulsive act of imagination unrestricted by commercial or marketing considerations Thatrsquos great But itrsquos not how it works for the Creative Direc-tor Itrsquos your job to figure out where this particular piece could possibly maybe hopefully fit in the giant puzzle of the music industrymdashand then make sure that it fits there Often it requires more creativity than was used in writing the song

Sometimes the only way to figure out where a song belongs is to narrow it down step by step What type of artist would sing this lyric How young or old would the artist need to be What rhythmic feel and tempo works best for this particular melody I try not to get too caught up at first in chord progressions and the instrumentation on the demo as those elements can sometimes deceive you If a songrsquos melody lyric and rhythmic feel really fit better into a genre different than the one in which the song was originally conceived itrsquos always possible for a writer to restructure the chord progres-sion and redo the demo

For example if a ballad needs to be sung by an older male artist itrsquos in three-four time and itrsquos a lyric about the tragic loss of a loved onemdashitrsquos a country song no matter what the writer thinks Thatrsquos about the only genre where yoursquoll find an older male artist or in which radio will play a ballad in

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

waltz time particularly one with a tear-jerking lyric Go back to the studio add guitar and fiddle and take out the five-note chords

Itrsquos often up to the Creative Director to figure out what a song truly wants to be then to imagine where it could possibly fit in the market and then somehow reconcile those two realities Thatrsquos why you get to have ldquoCreativerdquo in your title

9 Does the song have the potential for mass appeal Is it the right sizeNo Irsquom not talking about the length of the songmdashthat stays under four

minutes no matter what Irsquom talking about something much more concep-tual something big

This is something I was never much aware of as a writer but itrsquos become increasingly apparent to me as a publisher Most writers write small rather than big So many songs are like lovely little miniature paintings a melan-choly little lyric with a little hook buried at the end of each little chorus with a lot of little chords and a melody that never really strays too far from a little six- or seven-note range In the end the listener is touched by a little emotion and reacts with a little smile a nod and then in very little time forgets about the song entirely

I remember seeing U2 on MTVrsquos Total Request Live a year or two ago when they performed ldquoBeautiful Dayrdquo on the balcony of the Viacom build-ing beamed into Times Square on the giant Jumbotron screen Thatrsquos what I mean by BIG One of the great things about U2 is that they write BIGmdashBIG GRANDIOSE ANTHEMS WITH BIG LYRIC IDEAS AND BIG MELODIES AND BIG GUITARS AND BOOMING DRUMS MADE TO BE PLAYED IN BIG PLACES FOR BIG CROWDS A U2 song can be an event So can a Springsteen song The same is true of songs by Jam and Lewis or Eminem or Missy Elliott They are capable of working on a large scale They can move the crowd

Now therersquos nothing inherently wrong with a small song They can be intimate and touching and quite satisfying to a coffeehouse full of friends and family But if you want to reach a large audience and to create a song that has the potential of becoming a classic yoursquore going to have to think bigger I recently heard an interview with Eminem who talked about his primary challenge as a young performer being that of learning to come out of his shell to lose his self-consciousness and project the larger-than-life persona that he has today

This is where the cheerleader aspect of the Creative Director comes in One of the most important roles a Creative Director can play is to encour-age his or her writer to paint on an increasingly large canvas to move from miniatures to portraits to murals Or to the Times Square Jumbotron

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up

CHAPTER 13114 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 115

(But I Lied)rdquomdashthese titles have sold the song before the music has even started Conversely titles like ldquoWithout Yourdquo or ldquoYou Are the Onerdquo are all but DOA I can tell by the title that Irsquove heard this song too many times before

Fixing a title is trickymdashitrsquos a little like fixing the framework of your house after itrsquos already been built But sometimes itrsquos just a matter of adding or subtracting a word or two or even changing the punctuation Britney Spearsrsquo ldquo Baby One More Timerdquo is more interesting than ldquoBaby One More Timerdquo Try to picture how the title of your song would look on the Billboard chart Would it stand out

2 Is there a concept for the songA weak title is usually an indicator of a more serious problem Songs

called ldquoWithout Yourdquo are not really about anything or at least not anything very interesting Therersquos not an original idea at the core of the song Take a look at the hit titles You can see that therersquos an idea a concept behind every song ldquoStutterrdquo by Joe is about a girl who starts to stutter when she has to explain where shersquos been Thatrsquos an idea worth writing a song about ldquoWith-out Yourdquo is not Most songs miss the top drawer because the core idea of the song is simply not compelling If the concept is weak itrsquos very hard to rescue the song no matter what you do with it musically or lyrically

3 Is the lyric effective Appropriate Convincing Singable Appeal-ing Clicheacute free

Itrsquos the eternal debate between composers and lyricistsmdashdo lyrics matter Irsquoll settle it for you here and now Yes Of course itrsquos possible to come up with examples of songs in which a banal lyric is redeemed by a great track just as itrsquos possible to come up with a lyric that has made something special of a relatively standard melody There are an awful lot of songs out theremdashyou can find an example to prove almost anything But as someone who listens to songs everyday I will tell you plainly lyrics matter A lot

This is not to say that therersquos anything wrong with a simple direct lyric In many cases particularly in dance music or urban music thatrsquos the only kind of lyric that will be effective and appropriate ldquoMusic Sounds Better With Yourdquo is a great lyricmdashone interesting line repeated over and over Itrsquos exactly what the song needs Conversely a lyric that sounds false or forced can kill a song on the spot

The words have to sing If therersquos a line in a song that makes you cringe itrsquos usually because the lyrics feel awkward the melody and words are out of sync with one another This is a job for Creative Director Find those clinkers and get lsquoem out of there Also the singer has to want to sing the words Lyrics function not only within the song but also within the context of the artistrsquos image Songs that put the singer in a poor light are tough to

CHAPTER 13114 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 115

get covered Most artists prefer to present themselves as strong and indepen-dent rather than needy and whiny (They save the needy and whiny stuff for offstage)

Finally one quick word about clicheacutes Stock rhymes like ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo or trite predictable metaphors drive AampR people nuts When yoursquore writing a song itrsquos easy to pass these clicheacutes offmdashafter all the line sings well and itrsquos only one line but when you listen to hundreds of songs a day itrsquos not just one line Itrsquos the same stupid clicheacuted line that yoursquove heard on ten other songs already today I once listened to twenty songs in a catalog and found that eighteen had references to birds flying and nineteen mentioned rivers running You start to notice that sort of stuff Spare me Spare us all

4 Is the song structured correctly Is there a natural build and release within the song structure

There are endless ways to structure a song but only about three that actually work

VerseB SectionChorusVerseB SectionChorusBridgeBreakChorus Out ()

Verse (with hook line at the end)VerseBridgeVerseBreak or Bridge (repeat)Verse (or half verse) ()

ChorusVerseChorusBridgeVerseChorus Out

The form I see quite often particularly from singersongwriters is this one

VerseVerseVerseBridgeVerse

Sometimes if Irsquom lucky the title will show up somewhere in there buried in yet another verse This is not a structure This is a stream of consciousness expression Song structure works on basic principles use the best parts more than once donrsquot take too long to get to the best parts and have at least one section that comes as a bit of a surprise Try the Clive Davis test Note if or when you start feeling bored You just found the weak part of your structure

Often structural problems can be fixed with a few simple edits Cut out that boring part move the chorus sooner or go straight into the out choruses after the bridge As the Creative Director you should feel free to experiment with any options you feel move the song along more effec-tivelymdashand help to bring it in at less than four minutes Fact if your song canrsquot be performed in less than four minutes itrsquos probably not going to get on the radio So you might as well make the cuts now Therersquos no reason for a five-minute demo

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

5 Does the arrangement serve the song Does it enhance the songPeople often speak about arrangement and production as if the two

were synonymous I prefer to distinguish between them Arrangements are concerned primarily with musical parts and structure while production is centered around sonic and performance considerations A drum pattern is an arranging issue a snare sound is a production one A background string line is an arranging element the fact that the strings are out of tune is a produc-tion problem

The first rule of arranging is that nothing should detract from the listen-errsquos focus on the melody and lyric Background parts should not clash with the vocal and the instrumentation and tempo should fit the mood of the lyric Most songwriters are protective enough of their song that this is usually not a problem Lyricists particularly tend to be ever-vigilant about anything that might obscure their favorite line (Every line is a lyricistrsquos favorite line)

More often the problem is that songwriters fail to use the arrangement to enhance the song Too many demos are nothing but drums bass some sort of pad laying down the chords maybe a string part and a few orchestra hits repeating the same patterns until the fade

On any classic record of almost any style there is some sort of instrumental hook built into the arrangement of the songmdashthe bass line in ldquoBillie Jeanrdquo the string lines in ldquoYesterdayrdquo the guitar riff on ldquoJohnny B Gooderdquo the pan flute melody on ldquoMy Heart Will Go Onrdquo the surf guitar and horn lines on ldquoLivinrsquo La Vida Locardquo the organ part on ldquoLike a Rolling Stonerdquomdashthese elements support the song and give it a unique identity They can also add a sense of dramatic development providing a jolt of surprise when they first appear a sense of change when they disappear and emphasis when they reappear

Listen to your demo and identify the instrumental hooks If yoursquore not sure your song has any hooksmdashthen the song isnrsquot done Go back to the drawing board

6 Is the tempo right Does the song dragYou never really understand the importance of getting the tempo right

until you play your song at a pitch meeting Suddenly the up-tempo groove that felt so in-the-pocket when you heard it in your office seems to plod and the ballads seem to run out of gas entirely stalling to a dead stop somewhere around the second verse Something must be wrong with the CD player Take it from a veteran of this syndromemdashdo not adjust your stereo There is nothing wrong Nothing that is except the songrsquos tempo

In my experience you want to push the tempo up to the breaking point and then pull back just slightly from that Yoursquoll hate me for it until you get to the pitch meeting You can thank me later

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

7 Is the production of the demo ldquodynamicrdquo and ldquoin your facerdquoProduction is one of those vague terms that can encompass almost every

element of a recording from the instrumentation to the vocal performance to the mix My primary concern here is sonic quality and musical performance Are the sounds fashionable fresh and interesting Are the reverbs delays distortions and other effects used effectively Is the mix properly balanced (keeping in mind that what constitutes a proper balance differs radically from genre to genre) Are the instruments and vocals in tune and in time Does the recording have drive and excitement

The impact of music is not just emotional or intellectual Itrsquos also physical If you donrsquot know what I mean crank a little Nine Inch Nails on your stereo You get it now The drums and bass should be a physical force that almost literally pushes the music along You should feel the bottom of the track in your gut Snare drums should crack with energy Demos that have this sort of power immediately set themselves apart from 80 percent of the music that comes across an AampR personrsquos desk most of which is tidy and pleasant and also soft and mushy Donrsquot be timid Try to blow those weasels right out of their chairs

8 Does the demo fit clearly into one specific genre Is that the appro-priate genre for the song

For many songwriters the creative process is one of complete freedommdashan impulsive act of imagination unrestricted by commercial or marketing considerations Thatrsquos great But itrsquos not how it works for the Creative Direc-tor Itrsquos your job to figure out where this particular piece could possibly maybe hopefully fit in the giant puzzle of the music industrymdashand then make sure that it fits there Often it requires more creativity than was used in writing the song

Sometimes the only way to figure out where a song belongs is to narrow it down step by step What type of artist would sing this lyric How young or old would the artist need to be What rhythmic feel and tempo works best for this particular melody I try not to get too caught up at first in chord progressions and the instrumentation on the demo as those elements can sometimes deceive you If a songrsquos melody lyric and rhythmic feel really fit better into a genre different than the one in which the song was originally conceived itrsquos always possible for a writer to restructure the chord progres-sion and redo the demo

For example if a ballad needs to be sung by an older male artist itrsquos in three-four time and itrsquos a lyric about the tragic loss of a loved onemdashitrsquos a country song no matter what the writer thinks Thatrsquos about the only genre where yoursquoll find an older male artist or in which radio will play a ballad in

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

waltz time particularly one with a tear-jerking lyric Go back to the studio add guitar and fiddle and take out the five-note chords

Itrsquos often up to the Creative Director to figure out what a song truly wants to be then to imagine where it could possibly fit in the market and then somehow reconcile those two realities Thatrsquos why you get to have ldquoCreativerdquo in your title

9 Does the song have the potential for mass appeal Is it the right sizeNo Irsquom not talking about the length of the songmdashthat stays under four

minutes no matter what Irsquom talking about something much more concep-tual something big

This is something I was never much aware of as a writer but itrsquos become increasingly apparent to me as a publisher Most writers write small rather than big So many songs are like lovely little miniature paintings a melan-choly little lyric with a little hook buried at the end of each little chorus with a lot of little chords and a melody that never really strays too far from a little six- or seven-note range In the end the listener is touched by a little emotion and reacts with a little smile a nod and then in very little time forgets about the song entirely

I remember seeing U2 on MTVrsquos Total Request Live a year or two ago when they performed ldquoBeautiful Dayrdquo on the balcony of the Viacom build-ing beamed into Times Square on the giant Jumbotron screen Thatrsquos what I mean by BIG One of the great things about U2 is that they write BIGmdashBIG GRANDIOSE ANTHEMS WITH BIG LYRIC IDEAS AND BIG MELODIES AND BIG GUITARS AND BOOMING DRUMS MADE TO BE PLAYED IN BIG PLACES FOR BIG CROWDS A U2 song can be an event So can a Springsteen song The same is true of songs by Jam and Lewis or Eminem or Missy Elliott They are capable of working on a large scale They can move the crowd

Now therersquos nothing inherently wrong with a small song They can be intimate and touching and quite satisfying to a coffeehouse full of friends and family But if you want to reach a large audience and to create a song that has the potential of becoming a classic yoursquore going to have to think bigger I recently heard an interview with Eminem who talked about his primary challenge as a young performer being that of learning to come out of his shell to lose his self-consciousness and project the larger-than-life persona that he has today

This is where the cheerleader aspect of the Creative Director comes in One of the most important roles a Creative Director can play is to encour-age his or her writer to paint on an increasingly large canvas to move from miniatures to portraits to murals Or to the Times Square Jumbotron

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up

CHAPTER 13114 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 115

get covered Most artists prefer to present themselves as strong and indepen-dent rather than needy and whiny (They save the needy and whiny stuff for offstage)

Finally one quick word about clicheacutes Stock rhymes like ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo or trite predictable metaphors drive AampR people nuts When yoursquore writing a song itrsquos easy to pass these clicheacutes offmdashafter all the line sings well and itrsquos only one line but when you listen to hundreds of songs a day itrsquos not just one line Itrsquos the same stupid clicheacuted line that yoursquove heard on ten other songs already today I once listened to twenty songs in a catalog and found that eighteen had references to birds flying and nineteen mentioned rivers running You start to notice that sort of stuff Spare me Spare us all

4 Is the song structured correctly Is there a natural build and release within the song structure

There are endless ways to structure a song but only about three that actually work

VerseB SectionChorusVerseB SectionChorusBridgeBreakChorus Out ()

Verse (with hook line at the end)VerseBridgeVerseBreak or Bridge (repeat)Verse (or half verse) ()

ChorusVerseChorusBridgeVerseChorus Out

The form I see quite often particularly from singersongwriters is this one

VerseVerseVerseBridgeVerse

Sometimes if Irsquom lucky the title will show up somewhere in there buried in yet another verse This is not a structure This is a stream of consciousness expression Song structure works on basic principles use the best parts more than once donrsquot take too long to get to the best parts and have at least one section that comes as a bit of a surprise Try the Clive Davis test Note if or when you start feeling bored You just found the weak part of your structure

Often structural problems can be fixed with a few simple edits Cut out that boring part move the chorus sooner or go straight into the out choruses after the bridge As the Creative Director you should feel free to experiment with any options you feel move the song along more effec-tivelymdashand help to bring it in at less than four minutes Fact if your song canrsquot be performed in less than four minutes itrsquos probably not going to get on the radio So you might as well make the cuts now Therersquos no reason for a five-minute demo

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

5 Does the arrangement serve the song Does it enhance the songPeople often speak about arrangement and production as if the two

were synonymous I prefer to distinguish between them Arrangements are concerned primarily with musical parts and structure while production is centered around sonic and performance considerations A drum pattern is an arranging issue a snare sound is a production one A background string line is an arranging element the fact that the strings are out of tune is a produc-tion problem

The first rule of arranging is that nothing should detract from the listen-errsquos focus on the melody and lyric Background parts should not clash with the vocal and the instrumentation and tempo should fit the mood of the lyric Most songwriters are protective enough of their song that this is usually not a problem Lyricists particularly tend to be ever-vigilant about anything that might obscure their favorite line (Every line is a lyricistrsquos favorite line)

More often the problem is that songwriters fail to use the arrangement to enhance the song Too many demos are nothing but drums bass some sort of pad laying down the chords maybe a string part and a few orchestra hits repeating the same patterns until the fade

On any classic record of almost any style there is some sort of instrumental hook built into the arrangement of the songmdashthe bass line in ldquoBillie Jeanrdquo the string lines in ldquoYesterdayrdquo the guitar riff on ldquoJohnny B Gooderdquo the pan flute melody on ldquoMy Heart Will Go Onrdquo the surf guitar and horn lines on ldquoLivinrsquo La Vida Locardquo the organ part on ldquoLike a Rolling Stonerdquomdashthese elements support the song and give it a unique identity They can also add a sense of dramatic development providing a jolt of surprise when they first appear a sense of change when they disappear and emphasis when they reappear

Listen to your demo and identify the instrumental hooks If yoursquore not sure your song has any hooksmdashthen the song isnrsquot done Go back to the drawing board

6 Is the tempo right Does the song dragYou never really understand the importance of getting the tempo right

until you play your song at a pitch meeting Suddenly the up-tempo groove that felt so in-the-pocket when you heard it in your office seems to plod and the ballads seem to run out of gas entirely stalling to a dead stop somewhere around the second verse Something must be wrong with the CD player Take it from a veteran of this syndromemdashdo not adjust your stereo There is nothing wrong Nothing that is except the songrsquos tempo

In my experience you want to push the tempo up to the breaking point and then pull back just slightly from that Yoursquoll hate me for it until you get to the pitch meeting You can thank me later

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

7 Is the production of the demo ldquodynamicrdquo and ldquoin your facerdquoProduction is one of those vague terms that can encompass almost every

element of a recording from the instrumentation to the vocal performance to the mix My primary concern here is sonic quality and musical performance Are the sounds fashionable fresh and interesting Are the reverbs delays distortions and other effects used effectively Is the mix properly balanced (keeping in mind that what constitutes a proper balance differs radically from genre to genre) Are the instruments and vocals in tune and in time Does the recording have drive and excitement

The impact of music is not just emotional or intellectual Itrsquos also physical If you donrsquot know what I mean crank a little Nine Inch Nails on your stereo You get it now The drums and bass should be a physical force that almost literally pushes the music along You should feel the bottom of the track in your gut Snare drums should crack with energy Demos that have this sort of power immediately set themselves apart from 80 percent of the music that comes across an AampR personrsquos desk most of which is tidy and pleasant and also soft and mushy Donrsquot be timid Try to blow those weasels right out of their chairs

8 Does the demo fit clearly into one specific genre Is that the appro-priate genre for the song

For many songwriters the creative process is one of complete freedommdashan impulsive act of imagination unrestricted by commercial or marketing considerations Thatrsquos great But itrsquos not how it works for the Creative Direc-tor Itrsquos your job to figure out where this particular piece could possibly maybe hopefully fit in the giant puzzle of the music industrymdashand then make sure that it fits there Often it requires more creativity than was used in writing the song

Sometimes the only way to figure out where a song belongs is to narrow it down step by step What type of artist would sing this lyric How young or old would the artist need to be What rhythmic feel and tempo works best for this particular melody I try not to get too caught up at first in chord progressions and the instrumentation on the demo as those elements can sometimes deceive you If a songrsquos melody lyric and rhythmic feel really fit better into a genre different than the one in which the song was originally conceived itrsquos always possible for a writer to restructure the chord progres-sion and redo the demo

For example if a ballad needs to be sung by an older male artist itrsquos in three-four time and itrsquos a lyric about the tragic loss of a loved onemdashitrsquos a country song no matter what the writer thinks Thatrsquos about the only genre where yoursquoll find an older male artist or in which radio will play a ballad in

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

waltz time particularly one with a tear-jerking lyric Go back to the studio add guitar and fiddle and take out the five-note chords

Itrsquos often up to the Creative Director to figure out what a song truly wants to be then to imagine where it could possibly fit in the market and then somehow reconcile those two realities Thatrsquos why you get to have ldquoCreativerdquo in your title

9 Does the song have the potential for mass appeal Is it the right sizeNo Irsquom not talking about the length of the songmdashthat stays under four

minutes no matter what Irsquom talking about something much more concep-tual something big

This is something I was never much aware of as a writer but itrsquos become increasingly apparent to me as a publisher Most writers write small rather than big So many songs are like lovely little miniature paintings a melan-choly little lyric with a little hook buried at the end of each little chorus with a lot of little chords and a melody that never really strays too far from a little six- or seven-note range In the end the listener is touched by a little emotion and reacts with a little smile a nod and then in very little time forgets about the song entirely

I remember seeing U2 on MTVrsquos Total Request Live a year or two ago when they performed ldquoBeautiful Dayrdquo on the balcony of the Viacom build-ing beamed into Times Square on the giant Jumbotron screen Thatrsquos what I mean by BIG One of the great things about U2 is that they write BIGmdashBIG GRANDIOSE ANTHEMS WITH BIG LYRIC IDEAS AND BIG MELODIES AND BIG GUITARS AND BOOMING DRUMS MADE TO BE PLAYED IN BIG PLACES FOR BIG CROWDS A U2 song can be an event So can a Springsteen song The same is true of songs by Jam and Lewis or Eminem or Missy Elliott They are capable of working on a large scale They can move the crowd

Now therersquos nothing inherently wrong with a small song They can be intimate and touching and quite satisfying to a coffeehouse full of friends and family But if you want to reach a large audience and to create a song that has the potential of becoming a classic yoursquore going to have to think bigger I recently heard an interview with Eminem who talked about his primary challenge as a young performer being that of learning to come out of his shell to lose his self-consciousness and project the larger-than-life persona that he has today

This is where the cheerleader aspect of the Creative Director comes in One of the most important roles a Creative Director can play is to encour-age his or her writer to paint on an increasingly large canvas to move from miniatures to portraits to murals Or to the Times Square Jumbotron

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

5 Does the arrangement serve the song Does it enhance the songPeople often speak about arrangement and production as if the two

were synonymous I prefer to distinguish between them Arrangements are concerned primarily with musical parts and structure while production is centered around sonic and performance considerations A drum pattern is an arranging issue a snare sound is a production one A background string line is an arranging element the fact that the strings are out of tune is a produc-tion problem

The first rule of arranging is that nothing should detract from the listen-errsquos focus on the melody and lyric Background parts should not clash with the vocal and the instrumentation and tempo should fit the mood of the lyric Most songwriters are protective enough of their song that this is usually not a problem Lyricists particularly tend to be ever-vigilant about anything that might obscure their favorite line (Every line is a lyricistrsquos favorite line)

More often the problem is that songwriters fail to use the arrangement to enhance the song Too many demos are nothing but drums bass some sort of pad laying down the chords maybe a string part and a few orchestra hits repeating the same patterns until the fade

On any classic record of almost any style there is some sort of instrumental hook built into the arrangement of the songmdashthe bass line in ldquoBillie Jeanrdquo the string lines in ldquoYesterdayrdquo the guitar riff on ldquoJohnny B Gooderdquo the pan flute melody on ldquoMy Heart Will Go Onrdquo the surf guitar and horn lines on ldquoLivinrsquo La Vida Locardquo the organ part on ldquoLike a Rolling Stonerdquomdashthese elements support the song and give it a unique identity They can also add a sense of dramatic development providing a jolt of surprise when they first appear a sense of change when they disappear and emphasis when they reappear

Listen to your demo and identify the instrumental hooks If yoursquore not sure your song has any hooksmdashthen the song isnrsquot done Go back to the drawing board

6 Is the tempo right Does the song dragYou never really understand the importance of getting the tempo right

until you play your song at a pitch meeting Suddenly the up-tempo groove that felt so in-the-pocket when you heard it in your office seems to plod and the ballads seem to run out of gas entirely stalling to a dead stop somewhere around the second verse Something must be wrong with the CD player Take it from a veteran of this syndromemdashdo not adjust your stereo There is nothing wrong Nothing that is except the songrsquos tempo

In my experience you want to push the tempo up to the breaking point and then pull back just slightly from that Yoursquoll hate me for it until you get to the pitch meeting You can thank me later

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

7 Is the production of the demo ldquodynamicrdquo and ldquoin your facerdquoProduction is one of those vague terms that can encompass almost every

element of a recording from the instrumentation to the vocal performance to the mix My primary concern here is sonic quality and musical performance Are the sounds fashionable fresh and interesting Are the reverbs delays distortions and other effects used effectively Is the mix properly balanced (keeping in mind that what constitutes a proper balance differs radically from genre to genre) Are the instruments and vocals in tune and in time Does the recording have drive and excitement

The impact of music is not just emotional or intellectual Itrsquos also physical If you donrsquot know what I mean crank a little Nine Inch Nails on your stereo You get it now The drums and bass should be a physical force that almost literally pushes the music along You should feel the bottom of the track in your gut Snare drums should crack with energy Demos that have this sort of power immediately set themselves apart from 80 percent of the music that comes across an AampR personrsquos desk most of which is tidy and pleasant and also soft and mushy Donrsquot be timid Try to blow those weasels right out of their chairs

8 Does the demo fit clearly into one specific genre Is that the appro-priate genre for the song

For many songwriters the creative process is one of complete freedommdashan impulsive act of imagination unrestricted by commercial or marketing considerations Thatrsquos great But itrsquos not how it works for the Creative Direc-tor Itrsquos your job to figure out where this particular piece could possibly maybe hopefully fit in the giant puzzle of the music industrymdashand then make sure that it fits there Often it requires more creativity than was used in writing the song

Sometimes the only way to figure out where a song belongs is to narrow it down step by step What type of artist would sing this lyric How young or old would the artist need to be What rhythmic feel and tempo works best for this particular melody I try not to get too caught up at first in chord progressions and the instrumentation on the demo as those elements can sometimes deceive you If a songrsquos melody lyric and rhythmic feel really fit better into a genre different than the one in which the song was originally conceived itrsquos always possible for a writer to restructure the chord progres-sion and redo the demo

For example if a ballad needs to be sung by an older male artist itrsquos in three-four time and itrsquos a lyric about the tragic loss of a loved onemdashitrsquos a country song no matter what the writer thinks Thatrsquos about the only genre where yoursquoll find an older male artist or in which radio will play a ballad in

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

waltz time particularly one with a tear-jerking lyric Go back to the studio add guitar and fiddle and take out the five-note chords

Itrsquos often up to the Creative Director to figure out what a song truly wants to be then to imagine where it could possibly fit in the market and then somehow reconcile those two realities Thatrsquos why you get to have ldquoCreativerdquo in your title

9 Does the song have the potential for mass appeal Is it the right sizeNo Irsquom not talking about the length of the songmdashthat stays under four

minutes no matter what Irsquom talking about something much more concep-tual something big

This is something I was never much aware of as a writer but itrsquos become increasingly apparent to me as a publisher Most writers write small rather than big So many songs are like lovely little miniature paintings a melan-choly little lyric with a little hook buried at the end of each little chorus with a lot of little chords and a melody that never really strays too far from a little six- or seven-note range In the end the listener is touched by a little emotion and reacts with a little smile a nod and then in very little time forgets about the song entirely

I remember seeing U2 on MTVrsquos Total Request Live a year or two ago when they performed ldquoBeautiful Dayrdquo on the balcony of the Viacom build-ing beamed into Times Square on the giant Jumbotron screen Thatrsquos what I mean by BIG One of the great things about U2 is that they write BIGmdashBIG GRANDIOSE ANTHEMS WITH BIG LYRIC IDEAS AND BIG MELODIES AND BIG GUITARS AND BOOMING DRUMS MADE TO BE PLAYED IN BIG PLACES FOR BIG CROWDS A U2 song can be an event So can a Springsteen song The same is true of songs by Jam and Lewis or Eminem or Missy Elliott They are capable of working on a large scale They can move the crowd

Now therersquos nothing inherently wrong with a small song They can be intimate and touching and quite satisfying to a coffeehouse full of friends and family But if you want to reach a large audience and to create a song that has the potential of becoming a classic yoursquore going to have to think bigger I recently heard an interview with Eminem who talked about his primary challenge as a young performer being that of learning to come out of his shell to lose his self-consciousness and project the larger-than-life persona that he has today

This is where the cheerleader aspect of the Creative Director comes in One of the most important roles a Creative Director can play is to encour-age his or her writer to paint on an increasingly large canvas to move from miniatures to portraits to murals Or to the Times Square Jumbotron

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up

CHAPTER 13116 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 117

7 Is the production of the demo ldquodynamicrdquo and ldquoin your facerdquoProduction is one of those vague terms that can encompass almost every

element of a recording from the instrumentation to the vocal performance to the mix My primary concern here is sonic quality and musical performance Are the sounds fashionable fresh and interesting Are the reverbs delays distortions and other effects used effectively Is the mix properly balanced (keeping in mind that what constitutes a proper balance differs radically from genre to genre) Are the instruments and vocals in tune and in time Does the recording have drive and excitement

The impact of music is not just emotional or intellectual Itrsquos also physical If you donrsquot know what I mean crank a little Nine Inch Nails on your stereo You get it now The drums and bass should be a physical force that almost literally pushes the music along You should feel the bottom of the track in your gut Snare drums should crack with energy Demos that have this sort of power immediately set themselves apart from 80 percent of the music that comes across an AampR personrsquos desk most of which is tidy and pleasant and also soft and mushy Donrsquot be timid Try to blow those weasels right out of their chairs

8 Does the demo fit clearly into one specific genre Is that the appro-priate genre for the song

For many songwriters the creative process is one of complete freedommdashan impulsive act of imagination unrestricted by commercial or marketing considerations Thatrsquos great But itrsquos not how it works for the Creative Direc-tor Itrsquos your job to figure out where this particular piece could possibly maybe hopefully fit in the giant puzzle of the music industrymdashand then make sure that it fits there Often it requires more creativity than was used in writing the song

Sometimes the only way to figure out where a song belongs is to narrow it down step by step What type of artist would sing this lyric How young or old would the artist need to be What rhythmic feel and tempo works best for this particular melody I try not to get too caught up at first in chord progressions and the instrumentation on the demo as those elements can sometimes deceive you If a songrsquos melody lyric and rhythmic feel really fit better into a genre different than the one in which the song was originally conceived itrsquos always possible for a writer to restructure the chord progres-sion and redo the demo

For example if a ballad needs to be sung by an older male artist itrsquos in three-four time and itrsquos a lyric about the tragic loss of a loved onemdashitrsquos a country song no matter what the writer thinks Thatrsquos about the only genre where yoursquoll find an older male artist or in which radio will play a ballad in

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

waltz time particularly one with a tear-jerking lyric Go back to the studio add guitar and fiddle and take out the five-note chords

Itrsquos often up to the Creative Director to figure out what a song truly wants to be then to imagine where it could possibly fit in the market and then somehow reconcile those two realities Thatrsquos why you get to have ldquoCreativerdquo in your title

9 Does the song have the potential for mass appeal Is it the right sizeNo Irsquom not talking about the length of the songmdashthat stays under four

minutes no matter what Irsquom talking about something much more concep-tual something big

This is something I was never much aware of as a writer but itrsquos become increasingly apparent to me as a publisher Most writers write small rather than big So many songs are like lovely little miniature paintings a melan-choly little lyric with a little hook buried at the end of each little chorus with a lot of little chords and a melody that never really strays too far from a little six- or seven-note range In the end the listener is touched by a little emotion and reacts with a little smile a nod and then in very little time forgets about the song entirely

I remember seeing U2 on MTVrsquos Total Request Live a year or two ago when they performed ldquoBeautiful Dayrdquo on the balcony of the Viacom build-ing beamed into Times Square on the giant Jumbotron screen Thatrsquos what I mean by BIG One of the great things about U2 is that they write BIGmdashBIG GRANDIOSE ANTHEMS WITH BIG LYRIC IDEAS AND BIG MELODIES AND BIG GUITARS AND BOOMING DRUMS MADE TO BE PLAYED IN BIG PLACES FOR BIG CROWDS A U2 song can be an event So can a Springsteen song The same is true of songs by Jam and Lewis or Eminem or Missy Elliott They are capable of working on a large scale They can move the crowd

Now therersquos nothing inherently wrong with a small song They can be intimate and touching and quite satisfying to a coffeehouse full of friends and family But if you want to reach a large audience and to create a song that has the potential of becoming a classic yoursquore going to have to think bigger I recently heard an interview with Eminem who talked about his primary challenge as a young performer being that of learning to come out of his shell to lose his self-consciousness and project the larger-than-life persona that he has today

This is where the cheerleader aspect of the Creative Director comes in One of the most important roles a Creative Director can play is to encour-age his or her writer to paint on an increasingly large canvas to move from miniatures to portraits to murals Or to the Times Square Jumbotron

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

waltz time particularly one with a tear-jerking lyric Go back to the studio add guitar and fiddle and take out the five-note chords

Itrsquos often up to the Creative Director to figure out what a song truly wants to be then to imagine where it could possibly fit in the market and then somehow reconcile those two realities Thatrsquos why you get to have ldquoCreativerdquo in your title

9 Does the song have the potential for mass appeal Is it the right sizeNo Irsquom not talking about the length of the songmdashthat stays under four

minutes no matter what Irsquom talking about something much more concep-tual something big

This is something I was never much aware of as a writer but itrsquos become increasingly apparent to me as a publisher Most writers write small rather than big So many songs are like lovely little miniature paintings a melan-choly little lyric with a little hook buried at the end of each little chorus with a lot of little chords and a melody that never really strays too far from a little six- or seven-note range In the end the listener is touched by a little emotion and reacts with a little smile a nod and then in very little time forgets about the song entirely

I remember seeing U2 on MTVrsquos Total Request Live a year or two ago when they performed ldquoBeautiful Dayrdquo on the balcony of the Viacom build-ing beamed into Times Square on the giant Jumbotron screen Thatrsquos what I mean by BIG One of the great things about U2 is that they write BIGmdashBIG GRANDIOSE ANTHEMS WITH BIG LYRIC IDEAS AND BIG MELODIES AND BIG GUITARS AND BOOMING DRUMS MADE TO BE PLAYED IN BIG PLACES FOR BIG CROWDS A U2 song can be an event So can a Springsteen song The same is true of songs by Jam and Lewis or Eminem or Missy Elliott They are capable of working on a large scale They can move the crowd

Now therersquos nothing inherently wrong with a small song They can be intimate and touching and quite satisfying to a coffeehouse full of friends and family But if you want to reach a large audience and to create a song that has the potential of becoming a classic yoursquore going to have to think bigger I recently heard an interview with Eminem who talked about his primary challenge as a young performer being that of learning to come out of his shell to lose his self-consciousness and project the larger-than-life persona that he has today

This is where the cheerleader aspect of the Creative Director comes in One of the most important roles a Creative Director can play is to encour-age his or her writer to paint on an increasingly large canvas to move from miniatures to portraits to murals Or to the Times Square Jumbotron

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up

CHAPTER 13118 THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR 119

Obviously this is tougher to do if you are not only the Creative Direc-tor but also the writer Still the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all the timemdashwriters more so than most everyone else except for the crazy guys on the subway Your work as a Creative Director should be reflected in your inte-rior dialogue and the conversation should be one of a tough but supportive coachmdashnot tolerating any attempt to take the easy safe way out but rather demanding that you set your sights higher and aim for greatness over medi-ocrity Most songwriters fail to leave an impression simply because they think too small and aim too low Go for the BIG hit

Wow A checklist for songs That felt very creative didnrsquot it Sort of like checking a car for defects when it comes off the assembly line Wouldnrsquot it be easier to just go by gut instinct and decide whether you like the song or not

Maybe Therersquos no question that many songs succeed better when listened to than when analyzed ldquoI Want It That Wayrdquo by the Backstreet Boys was probably one of the best pure pop songs written in the last decade despite the fact that it starts out by rhyming ldquofirerdquo and ldquodesirerdquo and has a lyric that I still havenrsquot been able to make any sense of But it also has a canrsquot-miss melo-dy and a brilliant arrangement and production It just works Of course itrsquos easy to follow your first impression and give a song the old ldquomake it or break itrdquo test No need to dissect the thingmdashyou either like it or you donrsquot

The problem is that as a Creative Director your job is not to decide whether you like or dislike the song Itrsquos to figure out how to fix it Or improve it Or improve the writer A quick gut reaction is not going to accomplish that A writer needs to understand what works and what doesnrsquot and be offered some constructive suggestions as to what can be done to make the song viable In order to provide that a Creative Director has to learn to look at songs in an organized and thorough fashion ldquoNah Irsquom not really feeling itrdquo is just about the most depressing thing you can say to a songwrit-ermdashnot because itrsquos negative but because it implies that the song is hopeless

As you practice listening to songs in a more precise way you will also start to find that things are often better than they first appear to be A few lyric changes a new drum pattern or a new demo singer can reveal that there was more potential to a song than you might have initially thought A care-ful consideration as to where a song fits in the market may reveal that it has potential in more than one genre If nothing else a consistent approach to looking at songs in this analytical way will help you as Creative Director to better understand your writer and his or her strengths and weaknessesmdasheven if you and the writer are one and the same person By maintaining an unre-lenting determination to get the music right you will begin to figure out what it will take to move your writer up